Orissa: Naveen completes 10 years in office

He stepped into the muddy politics of Orissa in the aftermath of the killer Super Cyclone and on Friday last Naveen Patnaik completed a decade as Chief Minister of poverty-stricken eastern state of Orissa with a promise that he would continue to strive hard to solve the problems facing the poor i

He stepped into the muddy politics of Orissa in the aftermath of the killer Super Cyclone and on Friday last Naveen Patnaik completed a decade as Chief Minister of poverty-stricken eastern state of Orissa with a promise that he would continue to strive hard to solve the problems facing the poor in the State.

This coincided with the birth anniversary of his legendary father Biju Patnaik, revered as a symbol of Odisha pride.

In fact Naveen was forced into politics by the circumstances after the demise of Biju Patnaik. Biju Janata Dal [BJD] was formed as regional force to fulfill his dreams and Biju followers forced him to lead the new outfit.

At that time he was considered a green horn completely disinterest in active politics. Patnaik who took over the reins on March 5, 2000 was known as a "Social butterfly" in Delhi. But in course of time he proved everyone wrong, thanks to his confidante Pyarimohan Mohapatra. With proper guidance of Mohapatra, a powerful former bureaucrat, Naveen not only trounced all his opponents but as a famed writer he successfully sold dreams to the poor to make a hat-trick in the elections.

He romanticised his rule by trying to revolutionalise the society and industrialise the state. He did it. When he took over he found that the state was close to financial bankruptcy with state living on overdraft. But soon Orissa witnessed fiscal turnaround and state government and Naveen did away with the debt burden deftly. Even Naveen received accolades from the World Bank recently. In last ten years, his government wooed investors to pump in Rs 6 lakh crore for various projects, mostly steel and power plants, in the state. But it's yet to take off or change the lot of the poor.

Local media said a string of controversies, involving multi-crore mining scam, farmer suicides, Maoist menace, communal riots in Kandhamal, displacement issue and serious allegations against some ministers and a former Speaker, put the Naveen-led BJD in a tight spot in past. "The state reached nadir in last ten years. The government has failed on all fronts," said Congress' Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh.

BJD's former ally, BJP too reacted strongly. "Naveen Patnaik got good opportunity to serve the people. But he failed completely to meet the expectations of people of the state," state BJP president, Jual Oram said.

Just a fortnight before the Chief Minister celebrated his ten-years-in-office a report that at least 50 poor people had died of prolonged hunger in Balangir district alone shocked the nation. Said BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra in the last ten years Naveen babu's government believed in the philosophy: 'since it can't banish poverty it should banish the poor".

Besides, according to the National Crime Records Bureau report at least five farmers were ending their lives every week in Orissa. The trend has grown by over six per cent in 2008 as the State has climbed the ladder at a notoriously fast pace to rank 12th of the 28 states with most farmer deaths, the statistics released by the NCB revealed.

The growth is over 40 per cent for the males with 245 taking the extreme step against 170 in 2007. Farmer suicides constitute a significant 5.3 per cent of the total 4,904 suicide cases in Orissa.On the other hand while none of the mineral based mega projects which Naveen Patnaik tried to bring in took off the ground huge mineral wealth was plundered in an organised manner. According to information obtained through RTI by Transparency International's Biswajit Mohanty showed illegal over-production by big companies that was roughly valued at Rs 14,000 crores in the past few years while Odisha Jan Sammleni Chief Rabi Das, journalist, in his PIL petition in the Supreme Court point out that 'the value of transaction relating to the plunder of national wealth in Orissa is estimated to be over Rs 7000 crores a year and this plunder has been going on since 1999-2000'.

Thus even rough calculation would show that so far over Rs 60,000 crores have been pocketed by mine owners--big or small. In return they paid to the government Rs 29 per tonne as royalty. 'This clearly shows that either the entire system of governance has broken down or everyone from the State Secretariat to the Mine operators in the remote areas is involved in the loot', said Das.

According to Biswajit Mohanty who is also a well-known environmentalist, in spite of abundant stock of natural and human resources, the state continues to portray a hopeless image of stark poverty - child sale and starvation deaths that hits the national headlines regularly. He said at 1999-2000 prices, per capita income of Orissa increased from Rs.7, 700 in 1980-81 to Rs.15, 100 in 2006-07 the Per capita income of nation grew by 160 % from Rs.8, 600 in 1980-81 to Rs.22, 700. Clearly Orissa despite high-sounding promises continues to lag with a huge gap.

He is not the only one to say this. As per the poverty estimate of the Planning Commission, the State topped the list with high incidence of poverty. While 39.90 per cent of the population of the State was living below the poverty line in 2004-05, Bihar is placed second with 32.50 per cent BPL families.Although, the latest estimate of the Planning Commission said that 34 per cent of the State's population is BPL, the economic survey for 2008-09 released by the Government last year has BPL figures till 2004-05. The reasons attributed to the large scale poverty in the State are recurring natural calamities, uneven economic growth leading to regional imbalance, lack of irrigation facilities and quality infrastructure.

However unmindful of criticism he continued with his attempt to bring about social change and empower women. Coinciding with the celebrations he announced a plan to reserve 50 per cent of posts for women in panchayati raj institutions. "The state government will soon take steps to reserve 50 per cent positions for women in panchayati raj institutions as their role in these bodies is significant," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told a public meeting.

This far, no farther.

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